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Day #194: The Cave (2005)

[From IMDb:] Bloodthirsty creatures await a pack of divers who become trapped in an underwater cave network.

My take:

It might seem silly to say, considering this is a horror movie and all, but the nerd in me would have loved to see more underwater exploration in this movie. Just because you couldn’t pay me enough to go spelunking (confined spaces and being underwater? HAHAHAHAHAHA NO), doesn’t mean that I don’t think that footage was freakin’ awesome to watch.

Perhaps because of its positioning within a scientific framework, this is one of those movies that requires a fair amount of suspension of disbelief in order to be enjoyed. There are a few things here and there that bug, but the two main things that come to mind are: for “the best” team of divers there is, these people sure go for each other’s throats quickly; and, as far as the big bads are concerned, I can’t help but think that being so freakin’ big in an enclosed environment simply makes no sense from an evolutionary perspective.

In a way, this issue of unreality is the main problem in The Cave. What’s real and what’s unreal never quiiiiiiite meet in the middle, so that the dramatic tension that could’ve come from an immersive experience never truly eventuates. The environment looks great, but you can easily tell what’s real caves and what’s a set. The various underground creatures have a cool design, but you can tell they’re special effects. So on and so forth.

I think a lot of this boils down to the fact that, while this might be a horror movie in terms of its content, it’s been filmed like an action/adventure film. There’s too much light, and too many long/wide camera shots. You can just…see too much, y’know? I can’t help but think that something as simple as a little less light, and some tighter shots, could’ve done wonders for the horror side of this movie.

Still, this is all coming from Blog Post Writing Me. Regular Me has mindlessly watched – and enjoyed – this movie dozens of times, because it is a fun little action/adventure movie. And Regular Me’s only complaint is that a certain character‘s death makes no sense; but that won’t stop him from watching this movie a few dozen times more in the future, I’m sure.